An ink jet recording apparatus which forms a color image on a white ground uses color inks, such as a black ink (K), a cyan ink (C), a magenta ink (M), and an yellow ink (Y), and a white ink. A white ground is formed on a print surface of a recording medium with the white ink, and thereafter, a color image is formed.
The color image formed by the ink jet recording apparatus improves more in quality as coverage of the print surface with the white ink increases. Therefore, the ink jet recording apparatus is devised to raise the coverage. For example, a number of print scans for the white ink is increased to be greater than the other color inks. Otherwise, a number of heads for the white ink is increased to be greater than the other color inks.
However, if the number of times for which scanning is performed to print the white ink is increased to be greater than the other color inks, image formation requires a long time. If the number of heads for the white ink is increased to be greater than for the other color inks, a total number of heads increases so that the whole apparatus becomes large. Further, product costs and maintenance costs increase also. Therefore, there are demands for an inkjet recording apparatus and a recording method which can solve problems described above.